Demers captures NABF

Lemieux still perfect

By Dave Spencer at ringside

Super middleweight Sebastien Demers (30-2 11KO) came storming back from a first round knockdown to post a 116-110, 116-110, 115-112 victory over a game Nicholson Poulard (13-3 6KO), capturing the vacant NABF title on Saturday afternoon at the Montreal Casino in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Poulard came out strong, capturing five of the first six rounds on one scorecard while taking down the former world title challenger with a right hand at the end of the first and hurting him in the second. Demers though was able to weather the storm, getting a knockdown of his own to end the 7th, a perfect left that Poulard never saw coming. The victory sets up a fight for December 11th on the undercard of Pascal-Diaconu against another local rival, world ranked Renan St-Juste.

It looked as if it was going to be long day for knockout sensation David Lemieux. It wasn’t. The exciting middleweight scored his 19th knockout in as many fights getting things done before the end of the second round. Alfredo Contreras (10-7-1 4KO) took a blitzkrieg of blows in the second round and remained vertical until a body blow crippled the Mexican fighter, taking him down for a count of ten and beyond at the 2:57 mark.

Light-heavyweight prospect Eleider Alvarez (3-0 2KO) heard the scorecards read for the first time as he captured an easy 40-34, 40-35, 40-35 decision over Alvaro Enriquez (9-8-2 3KO) as boxing returned to the Casino de Montreal Saturday afternoon. The Columbian import who now calls Montreal home displayed both patience and power over his opponent, knocking him down in the third round in one of the rare opportunities where the Mexican opened up and threw a punch. For the most part Enriquez who has come to Canada in the past bringing cruiserweights Ryan Henney and James Cermack the distance was simply there to survive, running with each nod and feint from the polished Columbian. Alvarez was content to take what was given to him, jabbing well and throwing to the body before coming upstairs with some crisp right hands.

Alvarez’s Columbian stable-mate heavyweight Oscar Rivas also pushed his record to 3-0 with a convincing 40-36 win across the board over 38 year-old Ramon Hayes of Athens Georgia who drops his 9th in a row and falls to 15-29-1.

Although all three scorecards read an identical 58-56, judges could only agree on one round in a very close fight giving Canadian junior-welterweight champion Manolis Plaitis (14-0 7KO) the nod over Noel Cortez (17-16 12KO). Cortez of Mexico came to fight and had some energized exchanges with Plaitis who was returning to the ring for the first time in over one year.

Hugo Armenta was unable to answer the bell for the sixth round and super-lightweight Dierry Jean moved to a perfect 17-0 scoring his 11th stoppage.